The <BAR WP SoH HR OR BADE 
47 
Gk Noy Storie 
WINTER WOLFSBANE, 
CAMMARUM. 
THE flower ftands in the centre of the leaf, and has no other’ cup; it is compofed of fix pe- 
tals: the feeds are contained in capfules, in an uncertain number, properly fix, but more 
frequently only four or five, after every flower. ; Ay 
No plant has been called by fo many names, or referred to fo many different genera, as this; and 
all improperly, The error has been in the authors not perceiving that it was a plant fui generis, and 
belonged to none. } 
Linnzeus places it among his polyandria polygyniay making it a fpecies of hellebore: but it has fix 
petals to the fower; whereas the hellebores have but five. This is a very effential diftinétion. E 
C. Bauhine calls it an aconite ; but the aconites have only five petals in the flower, and thofe dif- 
pofed in a particular manner: whereas in this there are fix; and they are equal, and ftand regu- 
larly. 
J. Bauhine makes it a ranunculus, forgetting that the renunculi have naked feeds, and this plant 
capfules. By fome it is called bulbus unifolius,; a very uncertain name, and alfo improper; the root 
being not bulbous, but tuberous: and by others it is called an elleborine 3 a genus from which it 
differs in form and characters more than from all. 
In this uncertainty and impropriety of a name, I have given it a new one, diftin& as the plant it- 
felf from all the other genera: this is cammarum, from an old Greek word xopeeo, ufed by Dio- 
{corides and others as a diftinétion to fome of their aconites ; though, from their fhortnefs, it is not 
eafy to fay which. In Diofcorides it feems to mean the fame with his pardalianches, but in others it 
rather appears to point at this plant; which there is alfo reafon to believe is the real and proper 
aconite of Theophraftus, and the earlier Greeks. I have however preferved its common Englith 
name. 
We fee, though commonly called: by the name of wolffhane, it is a plant altogether different fron 
that genus, and properly conftitutes one of its own; I have therefore called it by 4 new one. But 
as the plant is fo perfectly known by its old Englith name, and by the Latin one, of which that: 
is a tranflation, aconitum hyemale, and is one which, from its power of doing harm, fhould not be 
rendered liable to be miftaken, great danger, as well as the lofs of great good, being neceffarily to be 
guarded againft in the confideration of changing of names, I have preferved its common with its new 
one; and wifh, in cafes of this kind, the fame practice may be followed by others. 
Of this fingular genus there is but one known fpecies, which is very common in our gardens, 
Winter Wolffbane. The flower grows in the centre of the leaf, 
Cammarun, and is large and yellow. It confifts of fix pe- 
Bees 4 tals, with a great tuft of threads in the middle, 
The root is thick, tuberous, and large; black | and among them the rudiments of feveral cap= 
on the outfide, white within, and of a violently | fyles, 
acrid and. burning tafte. It has a few fibres; 
and, when it has ftaod fome time on the ground, 
has other tuberous pieces growing from it. 
The leaf and plant are one thing, for there is 
no other ftalk. 
Many footftalks rife from different parts of the 
root, each of which has at its top one leaf. The 
footftalk is inferted at the centre; and the leaf is 
of a rounded figure, but very deeply divided into 
narrow. fegments. 
When the flower falls, thefe ripen, and cons 
tain feveral yellowith, rounded, and flat feeds, 
It is a native.of Germany, and flowers in the 
depth of winter. 
The root is a violent cathartick in a very 
{mall dofe ; and in any thing a larger quantity it 
is to be confidered as a fatal poifon. 
Gi. at Nie S XV. 
PIONY. 
P@ON?TS 
Sind leaves are divided into many parts. The flowers are large, and confift of five petals: they 
ftand ina five-leaved cup, and are fucceeded by large capfules, two after every flower: The 
roots are tuberous. 
Linneus places this among his polyandria digynia, there being numerous filaments, and the ru- 
diments of the two capfules in the centre of every flower. In this, however, he acknowledges there 
is no certainty; for, inftead of two, thefe rudiments are in fome fpecies three, four, or five, to each 
flower. 
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